Authorities have launched a search after a passenger ship carrying over 240 people lost contact in the Java Sea in Indonesia amid severe weather conditions.

According to Reuters and other foreign media outlets on the 13th local time, the search and rescue agency in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, reported that an emergency call was received from an official of the "Vigor Transport 8" at around 4:10 a.m. that day in the Java Sea near Banjarmasin.

At the time of the incident, the passenger ship was carrying 243 passengers, and specific details of the emergency report have not yet been disclosed.

The ferry departed from Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia's second-largest city, at around 10:13 a.m. the previous day bound for Banjarmasin. It lost contact at around 2:00 a.m. that day after communicating that weather conditions were poor.

The last confirmed position of the passenger ship is in the Java Sea, approximately 148 kilometers away from the Basirih Pier in Banjarmasin. An official from the Banjarmasin search and rescue agency stated, "Upon receiving the report that contact with the passenger ship was lost, we immediately dispatched a rescue team to its last known location."

(Photo: Captured from CNN Indonesia website, Yonhap News)